* : y — ^ - 

REMINISCENCES 

OF thp: 

RECONSTRUCTION 



OF 



CHURCH AND STATE 



IN GEORGIA, 



JOHN H. CALDWELL, A. M., D. D. 



PRICE, - - - - TEN CENTS. 



WILMINGTON, DELAWARE. 

J. MILLER THOMAS. 

1895. 



/ 




^^ jHy^ oJL.^<^^^-J^ 



REMINISCENCES 



VtF THE 



RECONSTRUCTION 



OF 



CHURCH AND STATE 



IN UEOKUIA, 



BV 



/ 



JOHN H. CALDWELL, A. M, D. D. 



TRICE, 



TEN CENTS. 



WILMINGTON, DEI.AWAKE. 

J. MILLER THOMAS. 

1895. 




Dover, Delaware. 
Rev. Dr. C. W. Parker, Bremen, Georgia. 
My Dear Brother : 

Your letter received, and I hasten to reply. You inform me 
that it is the purpose of the brethren composing the Georgia Con- 
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church to hold, during its next 
session, a meeting for the purjjose of reviewing its history up to and 
including the first Annual Conference that was organized. 

You ask me to give an account of my personal relations to, and 
experience in, that work. The re-establishment of our Church in 
Georgia was contemporaneous with the reconstruction of the civil 
government of that State, a period extending from 1865 to 1871. 
There could have l)een no permanent re-establishment of the Church, 
after a separation of more than a score of years caused by the great 
schism of 1844, without a permanent re-establishment of the State 
government under the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, by means of 
which the rupture occasioned by Secession was healed. The two 
events constituted, therefore, a reconstruction, though not the Union, 
of Church and State. They were combined and closely connected 
movements, the success of which alone, under God, could insure the 
peace and prosperity which the people of Georgia now enjoy. I 
should not at this time write anything for the public eye on that 
subject had I not been invited by you, or some one else in like circum- 
stances, to do so, in order that a record of those times of hardship and 
peril, may be preserved in a permanent form. 

The prominence of the E(jo in the following narrative, however 
unavoidable in a personal history or autobiographical sketch, is as 
unpleasant for me to use as it must be to one who reads it or hears it 
read. But I wish you and all who hear it to understand that I claim 
nothing for myself, feeling a profound conviction that I was led every 
step of my way mistakes and blunders excepted, by the hand of God. 

With fraternal esteem, 

J. H. CALDWELL. 



Reminiscences of the Reconstruction of 
Churcli and State in Georgia. 



PART FIRST— THE CHURCH. 

In the early part of 186(), at my invitation, Bishop Clark, of tlie 
Methodist Episcopal Chnrch, went to Atlanta and organized a mission 
district, and you now wish me, after the lapse of twenty-nine years, to 
write a lirief history of the circumstances which led to that move- 
ment and of its results. 

>' The war of the rebellion, or Civil War lietween the North and 
South, as some prefer to call it, had come to an end in the spring of 
1<SH5. On the -ith of June in that year, soon after the publication of 
the President's proclamation of amnesty, I had a strange but solemn 
exercise of mind. It was the 4r)th anniversary of my birth, a day on 
which I habitually spend some time in meditation, prayer and close 
self-examination, reviewing my past life and re-consecrating myself to 
God. On that day my feelings were wrought upon with greater 
intensity than on any previous birthday. After preaching twice, I 
spent a night of wakefulness and prayer, searching my heart, giving 
myself anew to God. I thought of the war — a horrible war, a war of 
desolation, misery and wickedness and with contrition besought God's 
forgiveness for the part I had taken in it. I thought of slavery, 
which had, more than anything else, caused that war, and of its certain 
destruction as one of the great and most beneficent consequences. I 
received new light and life from above, and during that night of 
agony and penitence formed a resolution which has continued 
unchangeable for nearly thirty years — that was, to speak plainly to the 
consciences of the people on a long forbidden toj^ic — the evils of 
slavery. I accordingly, with great care and prayer to God for His 
assistance, i:>repared two sermons on Slavery and Southern Methodism, 
which I preached from my pulpit in Newnan on the two following 
Sabbaths, June 11th and 18th. 

I knew well what the cost would be — the loss of many dear 
friends in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, social ostracism and 
perhaps the risk of my life; but I have felt from that moment to this 



a growing conviction that I was led by the Spirit of God to pursue the 
course I did, and, though it entailed much personal suffering, the good 
accomplished was beyond computation, and this is the consolation of 
my declining years. 

The sermons were published by the Book Ooncern in New York, 
and scattered extensively among the people. You remember well 
what an uproar they caused. A torrent of abuse, detraction and 
even slander, descended upon me. But God enabled me to bear it, 
for I had estimated all this in the outset when I counted the cost. 

In consequence of the excitement and irritation growing out of 
the preaching of those sermons, my Presiding Elder removed me 
from the Newnan station. It was his right, as doubtless he felt that 
it was his duty, to do so. But he ordered me to go to a mission in an 
obscure section of his district which was filled with all sorts of 
ruffians,- outlaws and murderers, where nothing short of a state 
of anarchy existed. I could scarcely have survived a week in such a 
state of society, where my outspoken sentiments were known and being 
discussed, witii many imprecations upon my head. To have repeated 
the doctrines of my sermons in that wild region would have been 
certain death to me, and I felt that my time to die liad not yet come. . 
I disobeyed orders, and chose for myself a wider and safer circuit. 

I spent about four months in travelling west, as far as Troy, 
Ohio, where the Cincinnati Conference was in session ; then east 
as far as Boston, and southward to Philadelphia, Baltimore Jand 
Washington. It being my first venture beyond the limits of slave 
territory, I came in contact with people who differed in many respects 
from any whom I had previously known, and different also from what 
they had been represented to me in the Southern press, both secular 
and religious. Among them were such men as Bishops Janes, Simp- 
son and Clark ; some who afterwards were made Bishops — as Harris, 
Foster, Wiley and Gilbert Haven, Walden, Mallalieu and Newman. 
Among distinguished divines were Durbin, Crooks, Whedon, Stevens, 
Curry, Carlton, Wise, McClintock, Nadal, Lanahan, Sewell and the 
two Morgans, with the venerable Dr. Slicer, Among famous divines 
of other churches, Henry Ward Beecher, Geo. B. Cbeever, and 
Dr. Thompson of the New York Tabernacle. Among the famous 
abolitionists were Wendell Phillips and Wm. Lloyd Garrison. 
Among array officers were Generals Thomas, Fisk and Butler, 
Among the great civilians. President Johnson and Secretary Seward. 
Among famous laymen of the M. E. Church were C. C. North, 
Oliver Hoyt, James Harper and George T. Seney. Four months' 



5 

intercourse with sucli men broadened ray views on many topics. It 
was a great addition to my education— a sort of post-graduate 
course both in religion and politics — my regeneration in the latter had 
taken place even before I left the South. I thank God that I had 
been literally thrust out — and that with more violence than I have 
space or even an inclination to describe, in order that I might 
be prepared for the work which was soon placed before me. I 
addressed Conferences, Sunday Schools, Preachers' Meetings and s(»me 
hirge assemblies gathered in different places to hear me on the issues 
of the War, the condition of the South, and the intellectual and 
religious necessities of the people. Everywhere I was received with 
open arms and generously entertained. 

In all my speeches I took the ground boldly, and with the earnest- 
ness of a new-born conviction, that God had opened the gates of the 
South to the northern preacher and teacher to enter, in order to edu- 
cate, elevate and save millions of ignorant and down-trodden human 
beings. The people seemed astonished to hear an ex-rebel thus speak, 
and regarded me as one just escaped from a fiery furnace — not dream- 
ing that I could have spoken so and survived within the domain of the 
slave power.j I was everywhere delightfully impressed with the mani- 
festations of genuine piety which I witnessed 'among the Christian peo- 
ple of the North. 

The time approached when my own Conference was to meet, the 
latter part of November, 1865, in Macon. Returning home, I found 
that my presiding elder had served me with a bill of charges for re- 
fusing to go to the mission to which he had appointed me, and for 
other things growing out of the course I had taken. The charges, 
however, were Avithdrawn, and at the suggestion of Bishop Pierce, 
who presided, the P. E. and myself made our statements of the case, 
which did not disagree in any important particular, and thus the mat- 
ter temporarily ended. But at a later period of the session, the Con- 
ference passed resolutions condemning the sermons I had preached on 
slavery. Still, thus far, I had not decided to withdraw from the 
(Jhurch South. In all my intercourse with Bishops and leading men 
at the North, I had not intimated a wish to return to the M. E. ('hurch, 
which I had joined in my boyhood, and from which, without my own 
consent, I had been cut off by the division of l^>44. None of them 
attempted to persuade me, nor was anything said or done to induce me 
to change my church relations. I had conversed with Bishop Pierce 
as to what course I ought to pursue, and he advised me to take a trans- 
fer to some Southern Conference on the border, where I should find 



6 

more people to agree with my sentiments. But this I felt was not 
God's leading. I had put myself fully in His hands to follow whither- 
soever He might lead me ; and to follow Bishop Pierce's advice, would 
be to flee from the work unto which God had called me — a work which 
lay at my door, in the town, county and state where I had my home. 

One thing caused me to decide. On the last day of the session, a 
brother declared in open Conference that he could no longer treat me 
as a "brother beloved." Convinced that he voiced the prevailing senti- 
ment, I could no longer hesitate. It was time for me to depart. I 
went to my room, fell on my knees and laid my case before God. The 
way was opened. I wrote a kind farewell address, read it at the last 
session of the Conference, and asked permission to withdraw. My re- 
quest was granted, and I went out solitary, alone, hardly knowing 
whither to go. 

I had said to the brethren before parting from them, "I will never 
come back to you, but you will come to me." Although I meant more 
than has actually happened — for I hoped that there would be a reunion 
of the churches — yet the history of twenty-nine intervening years 
shows how nearly I was right. In less than half that time. Dr. (now 
Bishop) Haygood came nearly up to my position. Compare the views 
expressed by me in the sermons on Slavery and Southern Methodism, 
with those expressed in a sermon preached by him at Emory College, 
and in his book — "Our Brother in Black." We have both been 
charged with inconsistency, and there was in both cases some truth in 
the charge. The fact was that both of us had been bitten by the same 
dog that bit so many Southern people, both preachers and laymen, 
and, I at any rate, went mad and wild with them. But I found my 
cure right away — on that memorable anniversary night, June 4th, 
1865, while the good Bishop found his after the lapse of many years. 
True consistency is indeed a jewel, but only when it stands on the 
right side of the truth. That is not the right sort of consistency that 
forbids one to change from the worse to the better. 

On my way home from our Conference at Macon, brother John 
Murphy came to my seat on the car, and, with almost bated breath, 
whispered, "I am trifhyou.''' That whisper, faint and tremulous, opened 
a wider vista to my view. It was as the voice of God speaking- 
through prophetic lips, and promising immeasurable results. I Avas no 
longer alone, there were two of us; and I remembered the promise, 
"two shall put ten thousand to flight." I believed that there were a 
few others who were like-minded, and I wrote them asking if they 
would join Bro. Murphy and myself in an effort to organize an an- 



nual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. At the same 
time I wrote Bishop Janes requesting him to come and organize us. 
He sent my letter to Bishop Clark, who had charge of the Southern 
work. In due time the latter wrote me, appointing a day when he 
would visit us in Atlanta. Seven brethren met him there at the time 
api)ointed, and he organized the " Georgia and Alabama Mission Dis- 
trict," connected it with the Kentucky Annual Conference, and ap- 
pointed as its superintendent. Rev. J. F. Chalfant, of Cincinnati. 

The seven preachers who were thus organized were all Southern 
men, and all, but one, members of the M. E. Church, South. Armed 
with the consciousness that they were acting right and in harmony 
with the Avill of God, they went forth into a great battle-field, where 
victory and glorious consequences awaited them. They made for 
themselves an imperishable record. At the historical meeting those 
who survive, if present, will relate their own experience, as I am re- 
lating mine, and those who are gone to their heavenly rest will be rep- 
resented by their brethren. 

Everywhere, in the newspapers and by individuals, they were o])- 
posed, and sometimes by combinations of restless men who were vexed, 
if not infuriated, at the movement. Their hostility was greater than 
it would have been but for a mistake which was made at the outset. I 
will briefly state the circumstances, which were never properly under- 
stood by our opponents, and even by some of our own people. 

In my intercourse with Northern ministers and laymen I fre- 
quently heard of a proposition, made by a distinguished clergyman, to 
the effect that when the M. E. Church entered the South one of the 
leading objects should be to "disintegrate and absorb" the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South. I took ground against this proposition, as 
it would be throwing down the gauntlet to, and declaring open war 
uj)on, the whole Southern Church. Alluding to it while I was address- 
ing the New York Preachers' Meeting, several brethren — among them 
I think was Dr. (now Bishop) Foster — questioned me closely concern- 
ing the probable effect of that policy. I answered that the M. E. 
Church South could not be disintegrated ; that it would soon recover 
its former position and be as compact and strong as ever, I took the 
ground that the Northern Church was Providentially called to the 
South chiefly for the benefit of millions of poor people who were in 
need of schools and churches for their enlightenment and salvation.) 
These views were generally approved by ministers and laymen with 
whom I came in contact. Conversing with Drs. Durbin and Harris, 
Missionary Secretaries, I learned that a certain amount had been 



thought of as necessary for the Southern work. I told them that the 
amount was far too small, and was glad to tind it more than doubled 
when the Mission Committee made the appropriation. From all that 
I could learn I thought that a general idea prevailed at the North that 
the Southern Church was so shattered and torn by the confusion and 
desolation of the war, that its membership would probably in a large 
measure be absorbed by the M. E. Church. I labored to correct this 
mistake, and think that in many places I succeeded. I was in such a 
I)osition and had obtained a knowledge of such facts as enabled me to 
take an intelligent view of the situation. Wishing, therefore, to make 
a fair and open declaration before the southern public of our purposes 
and principles, I prepared a document for that purpose, which I de- 
signed to have published, and moved the appointment of a committee 
for that purpose at our first meeting with Bishop Clark. The commit- 
tee was appointed, I was its chairman ; and my resolutions were adopt- 
ed without a single alteration. But when they were reported the 
Bishop took charge of the paper without putting it to a vote, and that 
was the last we saw of it. 

I have always deplored the mistake of not publishing that declara- 
tion of our principles and aims, as it would have lessened and greatly 
modified the hostility of our opponents. The disintegrating })roject 
was already known in the South, and was being used to crush us. 

We were held up before the public as a set of politico-ecclesias- 
tical propagandists ; as malignants, bent on mischief; provoking the 
ex-slaves to hate, and take revenge on, their former masters; as disturb- 
ers of the })eace and harmony of the churches. The opposition to our 
organization became so violent, and one of the seven \vas so berated 
and intimidated, that he soon gave up his work ; others who were get- 
ting ready to join us were deterred from doing so ; and some, who were 
kindly disposed at first, became exceedingly hostile. 

I determined to carry out the more conservative policy in my own 
charge, and proceeded to organize schools and churches exclusively 
among the colored people — being assisted with funds both from the 
Church and Freedmen's Bureau. Yet I knew that in some places 
there were a few white people who were longing to unite with the 
Methodist Episcopal Chuj'ch. All such we gladly w^elcom^ed into the 
fold. They were not disintegrated by ns, but came of their own ac- 
cord. 

The small band of earnest laborers sent forth from that first meet- 
ing with the Bishop, did their work so successfully that on October 
lOtli, 1867, the Georgia Mission Conference was formed. At that 



9 

organization Bishop Clark presided and I acted as secretary. We re- 
ported as the results of about twenty months' labor, forty traveling 
preachers, sixty-six local preachers, 10,613 members, sixty-three Sunday 
schools, 4,778 scholars and twenty-eight churches, valued at $25,250. 
Our Mission Conference was admitted into the full brotherhood of 
Annual Conferences by the General Conference in 1 868, held at Chicago. 
Bro. John W. Yarborough was our delegate and I was the reserve. 
In the latter part of the session Bro. Y. retired and I took the vacated 
seat by vote of the Conference. Our Conference, being thus full- 
fledged, developed into four annual Conferences in less than a score of 
years — two in Georgia and two in Alabama ; and all over that ex- 
tended territory are now flourishing schools, seminaries, colleges and 
universities, which have been planted and nourished by the benevolent 
activities of the Methodist Episcopal Church. These are the outward 
signs of the Divine approval of a small and apparently cheerless be- 
ginning. When we contemplate such achievements during a period of 
less than a generation of mankind, we are led to exclaim, " What hath 
God wrought." 



PART SECOND— THE STATE. 

In 1865, soon after his inauguration. President Johnson, without 
waiting for Congress to convene, or calling an extra session, at a most 
critical period, hastened to reconstruct the dismantled States. His 
plan, an experiment which lasted less than two years, proved a failure. 
Then Congress undertook the work of reconstruction by the passage of 
several acts — that of March 2d, 1867, another March 28d, 1867, a 
third on June 25th, 1868, and the last of the series on December 22d, 
1861). 

IN THE ARENA. 

The acts of reconstruction, including the loth, 14th and 15th 
articles of amendment to the Federal Constitution, provided for the 
emancipation and enfranchisement of the negroes, making them 
citizens of the United States and of the States in which they resided, 
and securing their civil rights and equality before the law in all 
respects with white citizens, including their right to vote and hold 
office when otherwise qualified. 

When the first act of reconstruction was passed I entered the 

arena and took an active part in the work of reconstruction, the first 

white citizen of the State, I believe, wlio took an oi)en stand in favor 
2 



10 

of the Congressional plan for the restoration of peace and good govern- 
ment. I did so for the following reasons : 

As I have before intimated, I saw no prospect of a permanent 
establishment of the Methodist Episcopal Church on the soil of 
Georgia without a civil government that would give me adequate 
protection in the prosecution of my work in that Church. The 
inevitable conflict had already begun which was to eventuate in 
my utter defeat and the overthrow of the whole scheme of ecclesias- 
tical restoration, or that complete triumph which the last quarter of a 
century has witnessed. I, therefore, set my lieart upon securing two 
things which were inseparable and indispensable in our peculiar 
circumstances, viz : 

1st. The right to s[)eak my sentiments publicly, without being 
molested, to any class of my fellow men, on any topic concerning their 
welfare in time or eternity. 

2nd. To secure such a civil government as would give me 
adequate protection in the exercise of that right. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, being an independent organi- 
zation, under ol)ligation for its creed and polity to no other, had 
as good a right to exist in the South as any other Church in that 
territory ; so had any other Church in the South the same right 
to exist in the North. In either case a Church would be but obeying 
its marching orders given in the great commission of the Divine 
Master. 

In order to carry out my two-fold object, and secure both civil 
and religious liberty, I accepted, without asking it or offering myself 
as a candidate, a nomination to the State Constitutional Convention 
provided for by the Acts of Congress. Situated as we were, being 
persecuted by the slave-power, whose spirit, even after the death 
of slavery, still survived, our case resembled that of the Nether- 
landers during the rise of the Dutch Republic, when both clergymen 
and laymen worked together to preserve their civil and religious 
liberties, while Philip the Second, through his minions, the Duke of 
Alva and his successors in office, were murdering the peoi)le in order 
to force upon them the Spanish Inquisition. If we had a Motley to 
gather up all the material and arrange it in proper order, what a history 
he could write of the struggles, sacrifices, hardships and perils whicli 
our early missionaries in Georgia encountered ! 

As to myself, I felt as truly called of God to enter the politi(;al 
arena for the reconstruction of the State government as I ever felt 
called to my ministerial office and functions. The same Spirit that 



11 

entered into uie on my natal anniversary, when I was led, as it were, 
into a new world, now led me into the work of civil reform. Without 
this there was not a foot of ground on which I could safely plant my- 
self in- my native South. 

I labored, therefore, heart and soul, for what I called a New 
South, and was the first, I believe, to give it that name. Before the Con- 
vention met I prepared a series of resolutions, which may be seen in the 
journal of that body, assigning its whole work to eight committees, the 
chairmen of the eight to compose a ninth for the purpose of revision 
and consolidation. I was chairman of the Committee on Education 
which provided tl\e first common-school system that had ever existed 
in the State. There were with me, besides several able white men, 
that famous colored orator, Henry M. Turner, now Bishop of the A. 
]\r. E. Church, and Dr. Campbell, a scholarly, clear-headed stiitesman- 
like man, born and educated in the West Indies, but perfectly black. 

After the Convention adjourned in the spring of 1868, I went to 
C'hicago as a reserved delegate to the National Repuldican Convention 
that nominated Gen. Grant for the presidency of the United States. I 
was at the same time, as before stated, a reserved delegate to the Gen- 
eral Conference, and found other ministers from the South who were 
also members of both bodies. I was placed on the National Commit- 
tee, and was also appointed on the Committee to proceed to Washing- 
ton to announce to the candidates. Grant and Colfax, their nomination. 
I was elected to the first Legislature that convened under the new 
constitution. 

In all my efforts to promote constitutional and legislative reform, 
I was warmly supported by that heroic leader, Hon. J. E. Bryant, to 
whom the State of Georgia is largely indebted for his courageous ef- 
forts to save it from misrule, if not financial ruin. He afterwards 
joined the M. E. Church and was a lay delegate to the General Con- 
ference of 1884, of which I was a member from the Wilmington (Con- 
ference. 

THE COUNCIL OF BLOOD. 

In the early years of reconstruction, before the Congressional 
Acts providing for it were passed, we experienced sore conflicts. Our 
enemies liecame so embittered that they even resorted to acts of 
violence. There was an organization, confined I think to two or three 
counties, including the one in which I lived — consisting of ruflians, 
masked and mounted, who rode about at night whipping the freedmen, 
in order, as they said, "to make negroes know their places." They 



12 

were called by some the " Black Horse Cavalry." Once when I was 
holding Quarterly Meeting a friend informed me that I would be 
visited at night by members of that organization. Deliberately con- 
ducting the services for the usual length of time, with the Preacher in 
charge, I took shelter in the woods where we lay all night on the naked 
ground. The "Cavalry," true to their threat, rode to the place where 
the meeting was held, but not finding their intended victims, they 
scoured the woods in search of us. They were so near us that 
we could hear the tramp of their horses' feet. 

After the Constitutional Convention adjourned, there appeared 
the infamous organization, composed, as was believed, of the very 
elite and chivalry of the State, that bore the singular name of Ku 
Klux Klan. You will never forget, Dr. Parker, when and where 
their first horrible crime was perpetrated. It was the murder of Col. 
Ashburn, by masked assassins, in Columbus, where you were 
stationed, and at night while I was sleeping at your house, after hold- 
ing your Quarterly Meeting. The same men who perpetrated that 
crime would have treated you or me in the same way if they had 
found us, for I have reason to believe that they had us both in view in 
their council on that night of doom. Not only so, I am convinced 
that the same council of "bloody and deceitful men" would have 
made a clean sweep of all our preachers if i^econstruction, accoi'ding 
to the Congressional Plan, had not succeeded. If any one doubts this, 
let him search the pages of ten or twelve lai'ge volumes containing the 
evidence collected by Congressional Committees sent to investigate the 
deeds of the /v!t Khix and other lawless bands in the South. One of 
those volumes contains my evidence and that description of the Ash- 
l)urn murder which I wrote on your table the day after the tragedy, 
and which was published in the New York Tribune/^' It was recon- 
struction, which under God's merciful providence, alone saved the 
State from anarchy and the necessity of military rule. The state 
of society was chaotic, and the spirit of our opponents despotic. 
Doiil)tless there are some people both North and South, who, if they 
should see these lines would exclaim, " You are still fiaunting the 
Bloody Shirt." Well, it is only a reminiscence. A mighty change 
has taken place since then. Were I to leave it out of these reminis- 
cences of reconstruction I should give you but a one-sided, misleading 
history. Understanding that it is a true history that you want, I dare 
not leave out this reference to the Council of Blood. For recon- 
struction, both civil and religious, I fought for six long years of 
*Ku Klux Conspiracy, Vol. VI, pp. 425 to 459. 



13 

turmoil and strife ; and sometimes, like Paul at Ephesus, I had 
to fight wild beasts, at the risk of ease, reputation and life. I have 
often been amazed at the goodness and mercy of God who threw 
around me the shield of His protection, while some of my fellow men 
were forming ambuscades and lying in wait to slay me ; yet I would 
willingly have risked my life, then or at any time since, to rescue any , 
one of them from such perils as surrounded me. 

NEARLY LOST. 

From the time of the passage of the reconstruction acts, March 2 
and 23, 1867, Georgia's government was declared to be provisional 
and under military rule, and so continued until July 22, 1868, when 
an official order of Gen. Meade, commanding the district, said, " To- 
day I have witnessed the inauguration of the Governor-elect. The 
State of Georgia is, therefore, under the act of Congress, entitled to 
representation." 

The new constitution had been ratified by a large popular majority; 
the Legislature had been organized after a long and careful inquiry into 
the eligibility of each member and a decision that all the members- 
elect were eligible ; all the requirements of Congress had been complied 
with ; the Governor-elect had been inaugurated, and the legality of the 
organization had been duly acknowledged by the commanding Gen- 
eral. The Governor, in a great burst of enthusiasm, gave a banquet 
in honor of the event ; all Reconstructionists, who at that time consti- 
tuted the Republican party of Georgia, rejoiced in the restoration of 
the State to the full exercise of all its civil functions. I rejoiced and 
praised God for the accomplishment of the two great objects for which 
I had toiled and suffered. At the same time military rule over our 
civil affairs ceased. The Ashburn murderers had been under trial by 
a military court, but were turned over to the civil authorities.. But 
nothing more was done with them because their trial had gone far 
enough to show that each one of them would prove an alibi. To 
crown the whole series of reconstruction proceedings, Congress recog- 
nized their completeness by admitting to their seats the representa- 
tives who were elected when the constitution was ratified by the people. 

Thus in July, 1868, reconstruction in Georgia was regular, lawful 
and complete, and should have remained so. But Ave rejoiced too soon. 
When United States Senators were elected, the Governor's favorite 
candidates were defeated, and he became all at once dissatisfied with 
the organization of the Legislature, and determined to have a new deal; 



14 

and that could be done only l>y making out a plea of revolutionary 
tendencies in the two houses. 

Accordingly in September, 1<S6S, a majority of the Senate and 
House of Representatives, respectively, decided that persons of African 
descent (of whom there were several in each house) could not for that 
cause hold seats in the legislature, and to exclude them therefrom in a 
body, without giving them any voice in deciding the question ; and 
thereupon they filled up the seats thus made vacant by the admission of 
the white persons having the next largest number of votes at the 
election of members of the legislature. But this decision would never 
have been made had it not been for the rulings of the Speaker of the 
House and President of the Senate — warm supporters of the Governor 
and much under his influence; as well as by the votes of a number of 
Republicans who were supposed to be infiuenced by the Governor in 
their voting. In this and many other particulars I set myself against 
the Governor's policy, remonstrating in a quiet way through the 
remainder of the year 1868. But the rupture became open in 1869, 
just before the first inauguration of President Grant. We held 
in Atlanta a public meeting of which I was chairman, and passed 
resolutions in opposition to the Governor's policy. Immediately after 
that I went quietly and alone to Washington, partly in order to 
be W'ith the National Committee on Inauguration Day, and partly to 
have an eye on the Governor's movements. I soon found that he had 
a bill drawn and placed in the hands of Gen. B. F. Butler for 
reorganization of the Georgia Legislature under military inspection, 
if not control, thus ripping up everything that had been done the 
year before in the way of reconstruction. If that bill had passed we 
should have lost everything, and subjected the State to terrible tumult^ 
if not open rebellion. I liegan at once to work against it both with 
the President and members of Congress, ray position on the National 
Committee giving me my only vantage ground, while the Governor 
was attended by a score or more of his strongest adherents. I 
telegraphed to Atlanta for assistance. In due time, as fast as steam 
could bring them, there came a delegation composed of some of 
the most substantial men of the State — all Republicans — backed by a 
delegation of Democrats who came on the same mission. We obtained 
l)ermission to use the Speaker's room at the Capitol, and sent for such 
members of the House as we thought would help us — such as Gen. 
Garfield, Gen. Schenck, Judge Bingham and others. They did help 
us, for they were so skillful in their tacti(;s as to prevent Gen. Butler 
from bringing up his bill. We even sent for him, believing that 



15 

he misunderstood the situation, and appealed to him to drop the 
matter. He would not promise this, but he evidently became luke- 
warm in regard to the measure, for I saw him stand at his desk a I'ull 
hour, waiting ostensibly to call up his Bill, but letting others get in 
ahead of him with their motions until the time passed and nothing 
was done during that session of Congress. But it left us in a state of 
anxiety for the rest of the year. 

NEARLY LOST AGAIN BUT SAVED AT LAST. 

In December, 1869, the Governor went quietly to Washington 
and got the Senate Judiciary Committee to report favorably on a bill 
to " Promote Reconstruction in Georgia." This required the reorgani- 
zation of the Legislature, and the expulsion of certain members on a 
charge of ineligibility. Thus we were thrown back under a provis- 
ional government and military rule. The Senate was reorganized ac- 
cording to the provisions of the act, and the house was reorganized 
also, but with several palpable violations of the act as well as of the 
laws of the State. The General commanding the district appointed a 
military board to inquire into the eligibility of certain members of the 
house. This was done amid great confusion and disorder, and in ntter 
violation of the act itself. 

Col. Bryant and myself were sent at the head of a delegation to 
Washington to protest before the Judiciary Committee against the un- 
lawful proceedings of the Governor and Commanding General. 

On February 10th, 1870, we appeared before the Committee and 
were received with great courtesy and respect, for they were already 
acquainted with some of the objectionable proceedings, and were pre- 
] tared to give us a fair hearing. The Governor — with his counsel — 
three Judges of the Superior Court, whom he had appointed to their 
otHce, were present. I made the first speech, in which I set forth the 
various illegal acts which were done in the reorganization of the 
Legislature. Col. Bryant followed in an able and severe handling of 
the Governor and some of his minions. On February 12, I appeared, 
at the invitation of the Committee, to answer one of the Governor's 
counsel. The Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Lyman Trumbull, 
asked me what I wanted. I answered, "A good and stable govern- 
ment for Georgia — one that will protect all the i)eople in all their 
rights." When asked if we desired to reorganize the Legislature again, 
I answered, "No, let it stand as it is, only do something to keep the 
Govei'nor from abusing the powers which he had assumed in con- 



16 

striiing the acts of Congress." In their rep(n-t the Committee gave 
us all we asked for. They made three re])orts on the Ceorgia case. 

The first was on March 2nd, 1870, in which they declared that 
the action of the General in command was, in several respects, without 
warrant of law. That the control and direction of the proceedings of 
the House of Representatives by one Harris, not a member or officer, 
was not warranted by law. That the exclusion of three members elect, 
who offered to swear in, was illegal. That in seating of persons not 
having a majority of votes was also without authority of law, and that 
it was not only illegal, but revolutionary. 

The Committee reported again on the 19th of May, 1870. In 
response to the resolution of the Senate, directing the committee 
to inquire and report whether any corrupt or improper means had 
been used or attempted to influence the vote of any Senator in 
respect to the Georgia bill, they said that from the evidence before 
them, such means had been used and attempted; also that the 
Governor in paying the publisher of the Chronicle triple prices for 
printing pamphlets, articles and speeches on the Georgia question, did 
use improper means to influence the votes of Senators on that (juestion, 
though there was no evidence before the C-ommittee that any Senator 
was influenced by the means resorted to. 

The third report was made Jatuiary 23d, 1871, reciting the 
history of reconstruction in Georgia from the beginning in order 
to determine which of two sets of Senators were entitled to take their 
seats. 

The speeches of Col. Bryant and myself, with a financial state- 
ment of the State Treasurer, were published at the request of the 
committee, but at the expense of the delegation, in a pamphlet bear- 
ing the title of " The Georgia Question." 

Soon after the last I'eport of the Judiciary Committee was made, 
the Governor left Georgia and the President of the Senate succeeded to 
the executive chair. The Governor gone, the strife ended, the breach 
was healed and the Republican party was once more united. I have 
been particular in nai'rating in as condensed form as possible the 
incidents of a great political struggle, involving not only the welfare 
of the people of a great State, but the peace and prosperity of the 
Church itself, because the final issue was a vindication of my course 
throughout the contest. 

While I struggled to get a good government, I wanted that 
government to be an honest one, and not only honest, but economical 
— not extravagant as that of our Governor had been. Such a govern- 



17 

ment will set itself to uphold virtue and punish crime — to put down 
fraud, violent intimidation of witnesses and especially of voters, 
l)reserving the purity of the ballot box from bribery, venality and 
corruption of every kind, as evils tending to destroy patriotism and 
lead to revolution and anarchy. Revolution when founded on justice 
and jjrosecuted on right princij^les, as in the case of our own country, 
is the best safe-guard against tyranny, but otherwise it is the greatest 
curse of a nation, as it was in F'rance. Our Governor's policy was 
revolutionizing backward. 

THE END. 

Reconstruction both in Church and State was accomplished. All 
that I had labored for during nearly six years of strife and turmoil 
was now happily achieved, x^lu era of good feeling and cheering hopes 
set in, and has continued till now. The times became so tranquil 
compared with former disquiet, that before I left Georgia I could 
travel throughout the State with as much safety to my person, proclaim- 
ing my views to all classes of people, as I could in any Northern State. 
(Jivil and religious freedom was so firmly establislied that, like twin 
sisters, moving hand in hand, on the same plane, they have had a con- 
stantly brightening prospect for nearly a quarter of a century. May 
they continue in glorious triumph through the coming centuries until 
that day when God shall summon all nations to His bar. Through 
all those stormy years I never heard from any of my brethren a 
single complaint about my taking an active part in politics, until 
my split with the Governor became, as it were, a public scandal. 
Then some of my brethren in the ministry, both North and South, 
laid on me the principal blame for the rupture. But none of them, 
neither near me nor at a distance, understood the matter. I was in the 
inside circle where I could see, hear and learn in some way everything 
that affected for good or evil the objects for which I toiled. So I con- 
tinued on my way regardless of opposition frofn any quarter. I did 
not deliberately choose my lot, but was thrust into it by the force of 
circumstances, and felt myself to be called of God as before stated 
to the work which I did for the State. In the midst of conflicting 
passions and interests, many things are said and done which ought not 
to be said or done. Far be it from me to claim exemption from such 
blemishes. God chastens whom he loves, and even makes their mis- 
takes and blunders the means of their chastening. So it was with me. 
Nevertheless, I tried to keep a conscience void of offense toward both 



18 

God and man, and generally felt the presence of His sustaining grace, 
sometimes rejoicing in hope of that successful issue which at last 
crowned my labors. 

Then I felt that my work in Georgia was done — there was noth- 
ing more for me to do — and I looked around for a change of residence 
and a new field of toil. Not being a politician, I did not seek world- 
ly promotion, for being nominated for Congress, I refused to run. Just 
then, however, a new and unexpected opening appeared, and I entered 
it temporarily until I could prepare for a transfer to a new field of 
labor. The Governor, before he left Georgia, appointed me Judge of 
the District Court. 

Notwithstanding our long and bitter controversy, we were always 
personally friendly and treated each other courteously. He bore me 
no malice, was a gentleman of charming urbanity and amiable disposi- 
tion. I never knew him to lose his temper or treat an adversary with 
discourtesy. In fact, he was a gentleman jjossessed of many admira- 
ble characteristics and remarkable business qualities. 

I accepted the Judgeship and took a location in the fall of 1870. 
In January, 1872, I went to AVashington to attend a meeting of the 
National Committee to fix the time and place of the next National 
Republican Convention. After that I went to Philadelphia to consult 
Bishop Simpson with a view to getting into some Northern Conference. 
He advised me to put my certificate of location, Avhich was signed by 
Bishop Scott, into the Wilmington Conference. I did so and was ap- 
pointed successively to the following places : Still Pond, three years ; 
Dover, three years ; St. Paul's, Wilmington, three years ; Dover, sec- 
ond term, three years ; Presiding Elder of Easton District, when, after 
serving a year and a half, I was called to the presidency of Delaware 
College. I was there nearly three years when I resigned and returned 
to the pastorate. After serving four years at Frederica, I took a 
supernumerary relation in March, 1892, and settled in this town, 
where I have many dear friends. * 

My narrative, covering a period of nearly thirty years, is fin- 
ished. The stormy period, with its roaring thunders and lightning 
flashes, is long since passed. At eventide the sky is clear. The sun 
of life is going down unclouded, and the horizon glows with golden 
radiance. And now, after so many conflicts, I can say, "Bless the 
Lord, O my soul: and ali that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless 
the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits ; who forgiveth all 
thine iniquities ; who healeth all thy diseases ; who hath redeemed thy 
life from destruction ; who crowneth thee with loving kindness and ten- 
der mercies." 



APPENDIX. 



The preceding narrative shows that the Republican i)arty of 
Georgia, which was composed of a majority of the men who worked 
for reconstruction, restored that k^tate to its normal relations in the 
American Union, thereby saving it from protracted military rule and 
a condition of anarchy. To that party is therefore due, notwith- 
standing the odium which was cast upon it by anti-reconstructionists, 
the peace and prosperity which have succeeded for a quarter of a cen- 
tury. The narrative also shows that the party which secured the 
happy result was, pending the process, split in twain by reason of a 
policy in which the Governor of the State persisted, notwithstanding 
the remonstrances of the leading men who placed him in the 
executive chair. For causing that split in the party I was chiefly 
blamed by many of my brethren in the ministry both North and 
South. A friend to whose careful criticism I have submitted this 
manuscript has therefore suggested that in order more fully to vindi- 
cate my course I should be more explicit on some points. I will do so 
in this appendix, for I have purposely omitted many of the worst 
features of the Governor's policy, because I have wished to give 
the least possible oflTence, at this late day, to any one opposed to me in 
those stormy days of strife. 

The beginning of the breach between the Governor and myself 
arose in consequence of his persistent determination to secure the 
election to the United States Senate of a man who at the time was 
under indictment for perjury. The Governor insisted also that I, as 
a member of the National Republican Committee, was bound to support 
the party nominee. To this I objected and continued my objection 
until this incipient breach became, after mouths of quiet remonstrance, 
an open rupture. The favorite candidate who received the nomi- 
nation from a majority of the party assembled in a caucus for that 
purpose, was before and during the war a strong secessionist, and 
assisted others in perpetrating a personal outrage upon a man from 
Chicago for uttering sentiments opposed to secession. After the war, 



20 

in order to get one of the best post-offices in the State, that same 
candidate took what was called the iron-clad oath, swearing that he 
had never taken any part in the rebellion nor given aid and comfort 
to the enemy. That oath being palpably false, he \Tas prosecuted for 
perjury, a true bill was found against him and the indictment was 
still pending at the very time when the Governor, whose election to his 
high office I had publicly advocated at the risk of my life, urged me to 
support him as the party nominee. That favorite candidate was a 
member of the National Republican Convention which met in Chicago 
in 1868, and was there arrested one night on a warrant sworn to by 
the Chicago man whom he had outraged in Georgia at the beginning 
of the rebellion. I took pains to see the sheriff and entreat him not 
to take the prisoner to jail, but alfow him to stay in his room that 
night at the hotel under guard. This request was granted, and the 
next day the candidate thanked me for the kindness I had shown him. 

I said, " Yes, Mr. 1 kept you out of jail last night, and now I 

must be candid with you and say that I will keep you out of the 
United States Senate." I did so in the following manner : 

With the assistance of Col. Bryant I organized in my room a 
band of thirty-seven members of the Legislature who pledged them- 
selves in writing not to vote for the Governor's favorite candidate? 
We persuaded most of them to stay away from the caucus while Col. 
B. and I went in to oppose the nomination. Entering the room, we 
saw the Governor seated by the chairman of the caucus to give, as he 
had previously told me, the weight of his official influence in support 
of his candidate. He was nominated, but five or six of us voted 
against making the nomination unanimous. At the senatorial elec- 
tion he was defeated by those whom we had pledged to vote against 
him. Dr. H. V. M. Miller, known in the south for his great oratorical 
powers as the "Demosthenes of the mountains," was elected in his 
stead. This gentleman, a Reconstructionist, but not a Republican, 
was a warm personal friend of mine, though I did not vote for him. 
I voted for Mr. Akerman, and the mention of his name reminds me 
of another incident. He was one of the ablest men in the Constitu- 
tional Convention, one of the greatest lawyers in the State, and suf- 
fered many insults and much abuse for publicly advocating the rati- 
fication of the new constitution. AVhen the Governor sent to Congress 
the names of many persons in order to be relieved of their political 
disabilities, for causes unknown to me, he omitted from the list the 
name of Mr. Akerman. I did not find this out until I went to Wash- 
ington in the fall of 1869. I learned this fact, and also the fact that 



21 

Attorney General Hoar was about to resign. I then proceeded to 
Philadelphia, called on Judge Kelley — who after the death of Thad- 
deus Stevens, was called the "Father of the House" — and requested 
him to have Mr. Akerman relieved as soon as Congress met. He did 
so, and Mr. Akerman was appointed Attorney General. I was enabled 
to do this out of kindness for my friend by means of my position on 
the National Committee. 

As soon as reconstruction based on the Act of December 22d, 
1869, became an accomplished fact, a great change in the spirit and 
temper of the people became apparent. Freedom from military rule, 
which was always odious to the popular mind, was attended with 
a general reaction in favor of good government, and all classes became 
more cheerful and happy. Ku Klux outrages ceased entirely, or 
were practiced for other than political purposes. This I ascertained 
officially, being appointed by the Department of Justice, under com- 
mission fi'om Attorney General Akerman to assist the U. S. District 
Attorney, under a special act of Congress, in collecting evidence 
against those who had committed outrages and having them brought 
to trial. In the prosecution of this duty I had some strange, and 
sometimes perilous adventures, which I cannot detail for want of time 
and space. 

One of the marked features of the change which was taking- 
place was the kind manner in which I was treated by some of my 
former opponents. They took me warmly by the hand and con- 
gratulated me on the work I had done for the State. The change 
was equally manifest in some ministers of the M. E. Church, South, 
who had been strongly opposed to me. One of them was Rev. Dr_ 
E. H. Myers who had handled me severely in his editorials in the 
Southern Christian Advocate. I met him at our General Conference in 
Baltimore in 1876, to which I was a reserved delegate, and he greeted 
me with a pleasant smile and warm grasp of the hand. From that time 
the unpleasant past was buried. I met also in Baltimore at another 
time Rev. Dr. J. O. A. Clark, who without bitterness in word or 
manner, had been strongly opposed to me. He invited me to his room 
and read the speech which he had delivered, or expected to deliver, at 
theWesleyan Conference in England. In 1877 at Ocean Grovel met 
Bishop McTeyere, an old friend, who greeted me most cordially. 
This was the "good time to come "for which we had looked and 
prayed in the early years of our tribulation. In fact it was the 
New South. Who can say there is not now a new South, notwithstand- 
ing occasional lynchings and other outrages? These are fairly offset 



22 

by similar, though perhaps not so numerous, deeds at the North. 

Since I came to the Wilmington Conference the Lord has greatly 
blessed my labors. Here in Dover we had a great revival in 187B, 
another in 1883, and in the two there were more than 400 accessions 
to the Church. My intercourse with my brethren here, and with all 
other denominations, has been of a most delightful character, and even 
with some Roman Catholic clergymen I have had very pleasant rela- 
tions particularly Revs. Bradford, Quigly and Bishop Becker. A 
Catholic priest in Philadelphia, while I was a member of the General 
Conference in 1884, showed me uncommon civility and courtesy. I 
mention these things, egotistical as they seem — and many others might 
be mentioned — to show that my six years of trial and suffering, while 
prosecuting the two-fold reconstruction in Georgia, were followed by 
twenty-three years of peace, prosperity and honor, for which my heart 
overflows with gratitude to my Heavenly Father, whose hand sus- 
tained me throughout the conflict. 

Living three years in Maryland and nearly twenty in Delaware, 
since I came North, I have at no time meddled in jjolitics, except to 
vote my principles. I am still a Re])ublican, as I have been since the 
beginning of reconstruction, though during that time I have voted for 
three Democrats — Hon. C. B. Lore, now chief Justice of this State, 
for Congress, Hon. William Saulsbury for representative in the Legis- 
ture, and Hon. Thomas T. Lacy for State senator — allj^ersonal friends* 
good men and true. I have always voted, when I had the opportunity, 
against the litiuor traflic. Twice I have been appointed by the tem- 
perance people to address the Legislature in favor of Local Option. 
Once the bill passed through the House, but was defeated in the Senate 
by I believe, a majority of only one vote. 

It was a hard thing for anti-reconstructionists to forgive me, on 
account of a terrible deed which I had been constrained to do. Under 
the reconstruction plan of President Johnson, a new constitution had 
been framed in the fall of 1865, and Charles J. Jenkins, an old friend 
of mine in ante-bellum times, was the Governor elected under its pro- 
visions. Soon after our Constitutional Convention met in the latter 
])art of 18()7, the Governor set himself to break it up. The plan he 
adopted was to refuse to allow the State Treasurer to pay the per diem 
of tlie members. By this means he supposed that the Convention 
would dissolve and melt away like a ball of snow. Under the recon- 
struction Acts of Congress the state government was provisional, 
Governor Jenkins was only a provisional governor, and the military 
power was supreme. One morning I entered the Convention and, 



23 

standing at my desk, read a preamble reciting the acts of obstruction 
on the }3art of the Governor, followed by a resolution calling on Gen. 
Meade, commanding the district, to remove him and appoint a military 
governor ad interim. The resolution was adopted and the Governor 
was accordingly removed. Thus I was fated in the prosecution 
of my two-fold object to oppose two governors, and cause the removal 
of one and the Might of the other. 

For offering that resolution I was roundly abused by all the 
unreconstructed papers of the State. But I acted on the principle 
that desperate diseases require desperate remedies. Pursuing my two 
offices of Judge of the State District Court and assistant of U. S. 
District Attorney, having no pastoral charge, I preached wherever 
there was an opening. Sometimes after holding court in the day, I 
preached at night. At other times pursuing a trail to secure evidence 
to convict some violator of the law, I fell in with some worshipping 
assembly and preached. Sometimes I preached to thousands of people, 
white and black, gathered together in the open air — the whites sitting 
or standing together on one side and the blacks facing them on the 
other ; just as it was in slave times, when the whites occupied the 
lower seats and the blacks the galleries, or some parts of the churches 
designed for their exclusive use. 

Now I can look back to those scenes of turmoil and danger, 
thankful to ray heavenly Father for His preserving mercy. I entered 
into His Kingdom in my boyhood and have often tasted its blessed 
fruits — love, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. 

I look forward from my present stand-point and with rapture 
exclaim : " Goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my 
life, and I shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever." 



NOTE. 

These Reminiscences are condensed from a personal narrative in 
manuscript covering a period of more than fifty years, entitled " The 
Checkered Path." I also have an unprinted narrative complete and 
ready for the press, a sort of religious novel, entitled " Harry 
Thurston, or the Varieties of Southern Life." 



13 



